Proof

Those who are fans of John Madden's prior films SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE and CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN will be left scratching their head after PROOF. David Auburn took the Pulitzer for his play which he adapts for the screen with rather poor results. It's not that PROOF is a bad film as much as it doens't properly translate from the stage to the screen. Gwyneth Paltrow certainly does her best to carry the project and Anthony Hopkins adds some weight but it never seems to find it's flow. The shades of A BEAUTIFUL MIND tend to distract in the sense one feels they've seen this before and when you throw in Jake Gyllenhaal with a character rather something like Donnie Darko all grown up, alive and in advanced university mathematics and the whole thing goes off the rails. An interesting work for sure but will be tedious for many viewers.